


The Past, Unburied

by afteriwake



Series: Love Is Like [24]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Childhood Memories, Comforting molly, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Family Secrets, Fluff and Angst, Forgotten Past, Hugs, Mentions of Eurus Holmes, Not Canon Compliant, POV Molly Hooper, Past Violence, Phone Calls & Telephones, Repressed Memories, Sherlock Has A Sister, Sherlock Needs A Hug, Sherlock's Past, Sherlock-centric, Shocked Sherlock Holmes, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 17:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11064051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: When Sherlock mentions his mother is coming to Baker Street to pay them a visit, Molly teases it's to embarrass him with childhood photographs and stories. The mood turns more somber, however, when Sherlock reveals his memory of his childhood is not as clear as his other memories are and that leads to a startling revelation: Sherlock has a sister he had forgotten existed.





	The Past, Unburied

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mouse9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mouse9/gifts), [MagsyB](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagsyB/gifts).



> So I decided I wanted to bring some of series 4 into this fic series, and this was my way of doing it. I originally had a prompt I was going to use, claimed by **violetjersey** and **Mouse9** , but it veered off wildly so I'll just leave this as is.

“My mum is paying us a visit,” Sherlock said when Molly was preparing dinner not too long after she had finally settled into Baker Street.

“When?” she asked warily. The fact he was dropping this on her like a bomb meant it was going to be a rather sudden visit, she knew. Not that she didn’t adore his mum; Christmas had been lovely and she had been wondering if there would be an occasion that Sherlock would consider seeing her and his father again. As long as it wasn’t tonight, though, she supposed she would be okay.

“Tomorrow evening,” he said, and she let out a sigh of relief. “I had mentioned you had moved in temporarily and the reason why and she seemed to think it was a shame you had lost so many precious memories, and then she said she was going down on the train and hung up.”

“You know what that means in mum speak, right?” Molly said with a smile. He gave her a confused look and shook his head. “There will be in her possession any number of embarrassing photographs of you and she will be quite willing to share all the embarrassing stories about you that she has.”

“I thought she did that at Christmas,” he grumbled.

“No, there wasn’t time,” she said. She had a smile on her face when she turned to look at him, but she saw he had a rather faraway look on his face. “Sherlock?”

“I’d rather tomorrow be about anything else,” he said.

“Why?” she asked.

He was quiet for a moment, looking at the glass of water he’d been holding in his hands. “My memories of my childhood are not as clear as my memories of other times in my life. Even in a drug induced haze, there’s a clarity there that my childhood memories lack.”

She stopped preparing the dinner and then moved closer to him. “Do you think something might have...happened? Something you don’t want to remember?”

“I suppose it’s possible,” he said. “I suppose anything is possible.” He set his glass down and reached over for her hand, running his thumb across her knuckles. “There were moments when my childhood was good, I suppose. When my family acted like a proper family. But there were more times when it was all abnormal. Where it seemed as though it was...off. As though something should have been a part of it that wasn’t.”

“Maybe someone?” Molly suggested. “Sherlock, have you ever looked at pictures from your childhood?”

He shook his head. “Nothing from before the age of eight. I know they exist, but I’ve never seen them.”

“Maybe you should ask your mum about them,” she said. “Ask her to bring those photographs too.”

He nodded. “I’ll call her now,” he said, bringing her hand up to kiss the back of it before letting go and reaching for his mobile in his pocket. 

When he went to the bedroom to make his call she gave him his privacy and went back to making their evening meal. It wasn’t until it was nearly ready to be served that she realized it had been quite a while and he hadn’t come back out. He could still be on the phone but she thought she ought to check. She went there and opened the door, seeing the mobile on the bed and Sherlock cross-legged on the floor, his head tilted back. “Sherlock?”

“Eurus,” he said quietly. “I have a younger sister named Eurus.”

Her eyes widened slightly and she came into the room, sitting next to him. He reached over for her, pulling her close, and she wrapped her arms around his waist and let him burrow his head into the crook of her neck. “What happened?”

“She burnt our home down when I was very young. She was considered a danger and my uncle took her away,” he said quietly. “I don’t remember any of this.”

“Were you in the home when it caught fire?” she asked, almost afraid to hear his answer. He didn’t answer verbally, simply nodding, and then she felt it make more sense. His sister had most likely tried to kill him. That would be a reason to blot things out of his memory. “Do you know where she is now?”

“Mycroft does,” he said. “He’s taken over her care from my uncle. My parents tried, at first, but it overwhelmed them. She’s a genius, like most of the family, but more so. And they are afraid of her. Afraid of what she’s capable of. He tells them how she is doing, but it’s best if she’s left alone, he says. She still...has urges.”

Molly nodded, beginning to stroke his hair back. Oh, this explained so much. To be told he was a high-functioning sociopath when there was some with psychopathic tendencies in the family, and hear how his family changed in how they treated him. To know something wasn’t right almost his entire life and not know what it was. For his parents to worry so. For Mycroft to pull his “Big Brother is watching” routine so often. To know that even now, when things were better, now that he knew the truth it could all change again.

And now to know that after everything there was still someone in the world who wished him dead, and for it to be his sister…

She pressed a kiss in his hair and just held him close. She doubted he would shed a tear over this; he showed emotion since he had never been the human robot people assumed he was, but she had the feeling there would be shock first. Maybe anger and sadness would come later. Maybe his walls towards his family would go up and hackles would be raised and the defenses he’d lowered would go skyrocketing higher than before. But she hoped and she prayed that he didn’t push her away. She loved him and wanted to be there with him through anything and everything that life threw at him, if only he’d let her. 

She just hoped he knew that.


End file.
